Explanation:
Glaring near the top of the frame, the shuttle orbiter Endeavour
rockets
into the night on the
STS-126 mission.
Endeavour
left planet Earth on November 14 from
Launch Pad 39A at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, making the 27th flight to the
International Space Station.
To record the dramatic view, the camera was placed so the shuttle's flight
path tracked across the Moon, from a vantage point in
Indian River City, Florida.
Near picture center the almost full,
perigee Moon shining through
thin clouds silhouettes the shuttle's dense exhaust trail.
On board the space station, the crew and the STS-126 astronauts
can celebrate the orbital outpost's
10th anniversary today.
Construction of
the International Space Station officially began
with the November 20, 1998 Russian launch of the station's first
element, the bus-sized Zarya module.